Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Film

Report says it's more than friends

By TIMES WIRES
Published August 10, 2006

Even as some less reputable sources are suggesting that the couple may be kaput, US Weekly is reporting that Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn are engaged.

Actually, US Weekly is reporting that Aniston and Vaughn have been engaged since the end of June, which is appropriate since the last time the magazine reported that they were engaged was the beginning of July (an unnamed source claimed that Aniston told a friend "We're getting married.")

Us Weekly editor in chief Janice Min made the magazine's official engagement announcement on the Today show Wednesday.

Vaughn proposed June 27 on a flight back from a nine-day trip to Mexico, where the couple stayed at the $25-million abode of Joe Francis, producer of the Girls Gone Wild videos, the magazine is reporting.

"Vince had the ring and got on one knee and proposed, and Jennifer said yes," Min said on Today.

"It took a while for news to trickle out," she said, adding that her magazine had multiple sources for it.

One of those sources apparently coughed up the only detail that matters: Vaughn's ring was bigger than the one Brad Pitt gave Aniston.

There was no official announcement from Vaughn or Aniston. They still haven't admitted they're even dating.

But Us Weekly isn't out there alone on this one. Entertainment Tonight reported June 14 that Vaughn had purchased a reported half-million-dollar, 9½ carat ring that looked like something someone could use for an engagement.

Suzy Fabrikant, described by Entertainment Tonight as "jeweler to the stars," told the syndicated show, "You'll be seeing a very special yellow diamond ring on a very important woman."

Back in the present, a British tabloid was reporting that Vaughn and Aniston have broken up over his refusal to wed.

breakup of royal proportions: His lawyer once represented Prince Charles. Her lawyer squared off for Diana.

Small wonder Britain's newspapers are comparing the Paul McCartney-Heather Mills McCartney divorce to the 1996 royal one.

Anthony Julius will represent Mills McCartney, 38, the law firm Mishcon De Reya said Tuesday. Julius helped Diana win a reported $28-million settlement.

McCartney, 64, who does not have a prenup to protect his estimated $1.5-billion fortune, had already hired Fiona Shackleton, who represented Prince Charles.

"It is a private matter," Mills McCartney spokesman Phil Hall said Wednesday. "Comparisons to Diana and Charles are irrelevant."

McCartney's spokesman, Stuart Bell, also declined to comment.

Critics charge that Mills McCartney has long emulated the late Diana, in part by choosing charity work to fight against land mines, as the princess had done.

The Sun's showbiz editor, Victoria Newton, took a hard line in a column suggesting that Mills McCartney would never have the public appeal that won Diana the nickname "Queen of Hearts."

"She may aspire to be the Queen of Hearts - but all she will ever be is the Queen of Tarts," Newton wrote.

Zap2it.com, the Associated Press, Entertainment Tonight and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.

[Last modified August 10, 2006, 05:39:45]